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tv   The Ed Show  MSNBC  November 4, 2012 8:00pm-9:00pm PST

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melissa harris-perry, you get the last word. thank you. again, i'm alex wal wagner tomorrow at noon on my show, senator brar ba boxer will join me to talk about what is at stake in this election. good evening, americans, welcome to "the ed show." coming to you live from the plaza at rockefeller center. 28 hours until the election. mitt romney's team is going to talk their way to the relationship. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> let us vote! let us vote! >> this is what democracy looks like in florida. and team romney thinks they have it all locked up. >> it looks like the map is starting to he can pand drastically in our favor. >> the spin from the right just keeps oncoming. tonight, richard wolffe and jonathan altar have a massive day on the campaign trail. plus, all the latest on a
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bizarre day of early voting in florida. the romney campaign finally addresses their chief lie. james hoffa of the teamster reacts. and karen finney and e.j. dionne talk about the rightys who blame hurricane sandy for the rough finish. >> the hurricane is what has broke romney's momentum. >> good to have you with us, folks. the days are racing by and time is running out for the 2012 presidential campaign. mitt romney needs something short of a miracle in the worst way. the campaign continues to trail but romney went to cleveland today to project strength. >> the chose of the american people can lead to one of two very different destinations. if the president were to be re-elected, he would -- it's possible but not likely. >> romney's running mate paul
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ryan is trying to complete a hail mary pass in wisconsin. it was off to ohio as well. >> two more days. just two more days. two more days. this is one of those elections we will think back and look at for years. a critical influkz point. >> president obama is on top by just half a point. romney isn't as close in the states where the election is going to be decided. in paul ryan's home state of wisconsin, the president leads by an average of more than 4 points. president obama has kept a steady two-point lead in nearby iowa. in the most important state, ohio, the president's lead has not diminished in recent week. he maintains a three-point lead. the obama campaign isn't leaving anything for chan in the buckeye state. vice president joe biden was in cleveland, that area today. he also sat down with my
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colleague, chris matthews. >> what do you think's going to happen? >> i think that we're going to win. i don't think it's going to be close for the electoral college. i think we're going to win clearly and i think you're going to see we're going to win this state ohio. i've been here 23 days, something like that. i think we're going to win iowa, wisconsin, we're going to win nevada, we're going to win new hampshire. i think we've got an even chance of winning virginia and florida. so it could be a big win. >> don't just vote. bring your mom. bring your dad. bring your cousin. knock on the door of your neighbor. because let me tell you something, the middle class depends on it. it literally depends on it. >> the vice president took on mitt romney's latest lie about jeep sending jobs to china. >> scare the hell -- scare the heck out of these people and it's flat false. absolutely flat fall. it's the most cynical play i've seen and, you know, there is an editorial in the denver post
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saying this goes to character. it's not just a lie, but it goes to character. >> while most of the attention is on ohio, a record breaking crowd gathered in concord, new hampshire. president obama was joined by one of the best retail politicians in the business. former president bill clinton. >> 20 years and nine months ago, new hampshire began the chance for me to become president. i have worked very hard in this campaign. i worked hard in the last one, too. i did 40 events for the president. hillary did 70. but i want you to know something, i'm much more enthusiastic now than i was then. >> president obama wants his supporters to know he hasn't
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lost any of his drive. >> new hampshire, i'm here today because i'm not ready to give up on the fight. i know i look a little older but i've got a lot of fight left in me. i am not ready to give up on the fight and i hope you aren't either, new hampshire. >> the obama campaign has the latest poll numbers on its side, which means the best way for mitt romney to squeeze out a victory is if people just don't vote. in ohio today, early voting locations reported wait times of more than three hours and tens of thousands waiting in line. keep in mind, they have cut back on early voting hours. in florida, governor rick scott cut the number of early voting days from 14 down to 8 giving us lines that look just like this. one polling place in miami-dade county shut down temporarily because workers could not meet
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the demand. every vote will be important in this election. one side seems intent on making sure not everyone gets to vote. get your cell phones out. we want to know what you think tonight. tonight's question, can voter suppression win the election for mitt romney? text a for yes, b for no to 622639. leave a comment at our blog at ed.msnbc.com. joining me is the former press secretary. very bold prediction for the vice president and my colleague chris matthews. do you believe the electoral college is not going to be that close. is the obama team that confident tonight? >> this all comes out to turnout. in a state like nevada, more than 78% of the nevadans will
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have voted by election day. we have a 70% lead there. we've got more than 100,000 vote advantage in the bank. we signed up more than 660,000 volunteer shifts for our get out to vote program and it all comes down to turnout in the final hours. >> you've got the turnout. if they can't get in to vote and if these early voting hours have been cut, how much of a concern is that to you? >> well, we've got a voter protection team on the ground across the country and right here in chicago that took quick action in florida yesterday and allowed absentee voting today. miami-dade and palm beach just announced that they will allow in-person absentee voting. winter park opened up early voting hours today. we're going to make sure that everybody's vote counts. if you're in line, stay in line. you saw the attention around
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this and they made sure that everybody was able to make their voices heard. we're going to make sure that happens through the final hours of the election. >> the romney campaign says it has numbers showing that they are going to win ohio. is that a bluff? >> well, i think we've heard a lot of bluffing from the romney campaign for days they said that they had an intensity advantage on their side. i wonder why that didn't show up in the early vote numbers. look no further than the fact that mitt romney spent today in the state of pennsylvania. he's desperately searching for a new path to 270 because he's not comfortable with his position in ohio. if he was, he wouldn't be lying to auto workerser across the state. they are desperately searching for a new path to 260. >> all right. ben labolt, thank you so much. let's turn to richard wolffe, msnbc political analyst and jonathan altar also with us tonight, msnbc political analyst and columnist for bloomberg
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view. richard, you first. the romney campaign is selling hard that they have got a path to victory even through ohio. your reaction? >> well, you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but maybe a couple days after the election the wheels fall off this kind of bluff and it is a bluff because pennsylvania is never going to be in play. it wasn't in play for president bush in 2004. it's not going to be in play now. the numbers that you're seeing in these early votes, they may not hold up in the sense that the republicans think that they are going to have a much better turnout on the day but it does say a lot about this ground game that chicago has been talking about for a long time. it's what they built in iowa back in 2007. the clinton folks didn't believe it then. they got surprised on the day as well. >> jonathan altar, you've been on the ground in ohio in the last 24 hours. enthusiasm, who has it? >> i think they both have it. and i agree that pennsylvania is bluff but ohio is close and it is within the margin of error
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and the republicans in some of those rural conservative counties have pretty good organization. evangelicals are apparently going to come out strong for romney. so obama has a lot of advantages. the labor vote, for instance, is going to be bigger for obama this time than it was in 2008. it's one of those areas where people are switching to obama rather than away. but there are some other demographic groups where there's been slipdlcpage for obama and would be cautious about being too optimistic about ohio at this point. >> cuyahoga county, i was talking to state senator nina turner. they are 12,000 votes off of where they were for 2008. that's a microcause sem for the state. what does it mean? >> early voting has favored obama. in ohio in 2008, mccain actually won on election day.
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>> yeah. >> obama carried the state comfortably but not on election day. so they have to go into election day with a good lead in the early voting or they won't make it. >> here's romney today in iowa talking about people getting handouts. >> paul and i have not promised you bigger check from the govern in the and we haven't promised to take some people to redistribute to you. >> richard, is this another last ditch effort to appeal to white resentment? >> honestly, at this point, even a dog whistle doesn't break through. what matters is the ground came. the republican playbook is, they have the intensity. there are enough people who hate the president that they will show up anyway. you are seeing two different philosophies of how you get people to go out and vote. the obama campaign is playing that macrogame and find the
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actual individuals who will show up to vote. now, you still have to have people who go up and vote. this is a long way from being over. if you have that organization, the bet is and they showed it before in 2008, you can actually make those people show up for vote. >> i sense a little bit more confidence about ohio in you than i do jonathon alter. why is that? >> well, two dozen polls in 2 oh 008 and romney hasn't come ahead -- >> i'm not being pessimistic, i'm just being cautious. it's true that the polls get more accurate the closer that you get to an election and they are not accurate at all a year or two out or even a month or two out but at this point the track record is pretty good and they are more reliable and i have to say i was talking to identical twins in perry, ohio, yesterday and they were working for obama in lake county ohio in
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2008. they say the organization is better this year, significantly better this year than it was in 2000. >> i want to ask you about the pew research poll that came out. seniors -- romney had a 19-point advantage and now it's down to 9. is medicare -- is that story, is that story breaking for the obama team? richard? >> those pew numbers rsh they are national numbers but you've seen the one last shift in the campaign with the president's response to the hurricane. that affects voters across the demographics. >> it may not have worked that well in florida because romney right now in the polls is the favorite in florida. i'm not sure the medicare message really cut that deeply down there. >> richard wolffe, jonathon alter, thank you so much. share your thoughts with us on twitter and "the ed show" and on facebook. we want to know what you think. coming up, the lines are long but the voters aren't backing down, find out why florida's governor is refusing to help
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out. this is "the ed show" live from democracy plaza. we're coming right back. stay with us. we're going to try to stump some political junkies with questions from bing elections. do you know where your polling place is? maybe somewhere around my house. mine's just, right over that way. well you can find out exactly where it is using bing elections. it's a good day for politics. which way do you lean politically? conservative. republican. well, using the bing news selector you can find news from whichever way you lean. (together) social on this side, financial. which party is currently predicted to win a majority in the senate? the republicans? would you make a bet on that? no. are you chicken? busy in here. yeah. progressive mobile is... [ "everybody have fun tonight" plays ] really catching on! people can do it all! get a quote, buy and manage your policy! -[ music stops ] -it's great! well, what's with the... -[ music resumes ] -music? ♪ have fun tonight dude. getting a car insurance quote.
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coming up, the latest from the ground in florida where republican governor rick scott is doing everything he can to keep people from voting. and then the romt knee campaign has released their silence on the deceptive jeep advertising. james hoffa is here with his reaction. and today was a big day on the campaign trail. howard fineman is talking to both campaigns and he'll be with us later. share your thoughts on twiter using theedshow. we're coming right back. ean themselves in the bathroom. try charmin ultra strong. with a new duraclean texture, it helps you get clean. plus it's four times stronger than the leading value brand.
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welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching tonight. long lines, short tempers, and lots of confusion tonight over early voting in the state of florida. voters report standing in line for four, five, six, even seven hours to cast a ballot in south florida this weekend. these are working people who say that they can't take off work to get to the polls on tuesday. but governor rick scott, he doesn't care. he refused to he can tend voting hours. he didn't want anybody to vote today. so civil rights advocates filed suit and judges in five counties in the state of florida went over the governor's head. they extended voting hours. hundreds of people lined up at election head quarters in miami-dade. just after two hours, election
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officials said they didn't have enough resources and locked the doors. the voters started chanting. >> let us vote! let us vote! let us vote! >> election officials brought in another ballot printer and more staffers so that they could reopen for a few more hours. miami-dade, broward, and palm beach counties say they will accept ballots tomorrow. still, voting in florida has become a serious challenge. >> look at this mess. >> no, it ain't no mess. >> i was in this line for seven hours. i got here at 7:30 in the morning and i was finally done at 2:30 or 2:40. this is the line. >> okay. go obama. >> both jeb bush and charlie crist he can tended voting hours when they were governor but rick scott refuses. the republican mayor of miami
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and top republicans in tallahassee say thoo these voters, they don't need an extension. do you believe that? they say that they don't need an extension. if there's one thing that we can't do in this country is vote properly. this is america. you mean to tell me with all of the internet technology and all of the skills that we have and all of the reskourss that we have at our fingertips, this is what america looks like in a very important election and you're going to tell me that we can't do better than this? washington better fix this no matter who wins. maybe they are hoping the democrats will go home and they don't want to wait in line anymore. joining me now is chairman of the broward county democratic party on the executive board of the national committee as a representative of the 14 southern states. i mean, it's great to have you with us but it just infuriates me when i see videotape like that. we vote like a third world country. >> well, welcome to ground zero,
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which is south florida, homeland of rick scott. lee expand a bit and tell you that yesterday in broward, dade, and palm beach, folks that got online right before 7:00, those people are following a process by either midnight or 1:00 a.m. this morning, these are people who want their democracy, want the right to vote and are standing in their way. >> why isn't he saying, we're going to exhaust every effort that we can to ensure that there's democracy? i know the answer to that. i want to hear yours. >> it's obvious that democrats do well in early voting, also minorities tend to vote. there were two early sunday vote days and that was cut in half to prevent african-american church gou goers who would march to the polls. it's an amazing coincidence, all
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of these governors came up with an idea, presumably individually about two years ago and yet it all seemed to come together for them. obviously there's no coincidences in politics as there is none in life. >> i have said all along that i think south florida is the bread basket of victory for president obama in the state of florida and if they are suppressing the vote like that, it's very clear what a republican governor is doing. but as far as the number of people coming out, do you see that it equals in south florida that of 2008? >> well, i think it's relatively close. i will give you a static that i do not believe is public here in broward county. when you add up all of the early absentee from 2008 which was a democratic wave here so it's very hard to match, lee tell you today now by the close of the polls tuesday night, broward county will equal but probably surpass 2008's totals for early
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and absentee voting in spite of governor rick scott. >> well, excellent point. i also see that rick scott has only appeared with mitt romney one time in the last nine months. why is that? >> well, obviously he's radioactive here. he's the invisible man politically. you know, mitt romney may change his mind every other day but the one thing he hasn't changed his mind about is never appearing on the same stage as rick scott. this guy is toxic. lee tell you a quick story. man's in line on saturday, early voting. i chatted with him. he just returned home. he's a veteran. he was online for three or four hours and say i don't mind suiting up for my country and fighting for my country. i don't appreciate having to fight for my rights to vote. >> thanks for joining us tonight. appreciate it so much. next up, the romney camp finally responds to their lie
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about jeep outsourcing jobs to china and it's not pretty. james hoffa will weigh in and have the latest on the ground from ohio. karl rove predicted victory for mitt romney. just wait until you hear what excuse he came up with to save his hyde. coming live to you live from democracy plaza in new york city. if you are one of the millions of men
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welcome back to "the ed show." mitt romney's campaign can't answer for their completely false jeep to china advertising blitz. and it's a blitz. they claim because of the alone, chrysler is planning to move jeep production to china. the claim is a lie. chrysler's ceo said, jeep production is saying in the state of ohio and called the commercials inaccurate. romney's political director was asked about the lies for the first time today and his response was embarrassing. >> the fact is, that chrysler, far from shipping jobs to ohio, is actually expanding operations in toledo. >> well, i find it interesting that president obama would attack governor romney on that when they put up an ad saying that governor romney says let detroit go bankrupt when that's a headline from a "new york
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times" op-ed. >> yes, just another classic nonanswer from the romney campaign. the "new york times" did pick the title of the romney op-ed but romney wrote, if the auto companies get a loan, quote, you can kiss the american automotive industry good-bye. the substance is all the same. romney did not want to help detroit with a loan. that's very clear more than once. >> you're going to see these companies go out of business ultimately. >> you said, quote, if joan motors gets the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the automobile industry good-bye. >> that's right. if you write them a check, they are going to go out of business. >> meanwhile, eric cantor was asked about the lies and his response wasn't much better. >> i have not seen the ad. i have heard it. they are apparently not running it in virginia so i'm not seeing the ad. >> he's not seeing the ad.
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he hadn't heard about t he doesn't know anything. apparently one of the highest ranking members of congress is not paying attention to the presidential race. do you believe that? for more, let's turn to james hoffa, good to have you with us tonight. what do you make of the. >> good to be here. >> what do you make of the romney came pain, their inability to speak directly to the kmergs that they are running in the state of ohio? >> i think it really shows a desperation as the race gets closer to the end. i think that the romney campaign is getting very desperate to run that jeep ad and then be repudiated by the ceo of chrysler is embarrassing. i don't know what is the purpose of lying and it hurts his
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credibility and shows a certain desperation setting in as we only have two more days. in cincinnati at a rally. he is at a fever pitch pace for making the final pitch to the folks of ohio. ground in ohio. what is your sense of the outcome? >> well, i was there all last week. tomorrow morning. i'll be in toledo by 9:00 tomorrow morning. i think it's upbeat right now. there is a lot of enthusiasm. i was with the president near columbus, ohio, on thursday. he has tremendous bounce in his step, tremendous confidence of people, all kinds of people were walking up. saw. there were old people, young people, black people, latinos. every time of person that's an american who is coming to that rally. people were bringing their children, taking them out of school because it was such an event. it was very, very moving to see the type of event that attended that event and i think that's the kind of deep-seeded
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enthusiasm that is going to carry the day in ohio. are the voters, are the residents when you visit them -- do they bring up the automobile fiasco that romney has gotten himself into? frin, this is ohio senator rob portman who was asked about the lies today and here's his response. >> the fact is, we now make jeeps in toledo, ohio, that we're proud to send to china, to asia. if they are going to start production facilities overseas, we're going to lose it here. that's all the ad said. >> what are the folks on the ground -- what are the residents of ohio saying to you? what do you hear? >> well, i think people are really disgusted with this. a number of people said, what's this story about the jeeps in you know, the truth is, the ceo of chrysler said we're not going to do it. i don't know what else you could say.
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but it's the kind of fear that they are trying to put into people to undler dz mine president obama. you're hearing it and don't forget in ohio one in eight jobs related to the auto industry. it's very, very important from one end of ohio to the other. there's really a lot of good things going on in ohio. they are putting on third shifts in a number of the auto plants, car haulers are hauling more ka cars. for him to put water on a positive thing, a spinout of the thing that we did restore the auto industry, we saved the ford chrysler, general motors, for him to be on the wrong side of that, the answer is he should just shut up and stop telling the lies. >> and finally, labor is so terribly important to the president's re-election and his work in ohio to deliver the buckeye state. right to work legislation is where mitt romney wants to go. how dangerous is that to you?
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>> well, that's one of the things we talk about. when we rally people and talk to them, they say, do you have -- we have strong unions in ohio and he has basically on record for the whole country wants national right to work. he wants to get rid of the minimum wage. he wants to get rid of davis bacon, any time of idea of regulating and having proper wages to protect people. >> no candidate has gone down that road to, my knowledge. >> no. but he's on the website, they are all gone now because of the tea party and now they are talking about national right to work. well, that really gets people up in arms and, you know, mitt romney doesn't see the difference. he goes on and talks very boldly about this, not realizing that it's really the third rail when it comes to campaigning in and it comes to the labor vote. >> mr. rof hoffa, thanks so much. president obama got bipartisan praise for his
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response to the hurricane. now republicans are using it as an excuse if mitt romney loses. karen finney and e.j. dionne join me next. campaign strategies have one more chance to convince voters. stay with us. you're watching he "the ed show" live from democracy plaza. if we want to improve our schools... ... what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this.
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ideas. in fact -- >> president obama speaking live in cincinnati, ohio. what a difference a week makes. not too long ago, confident republicans were already planning to attend mitt romney's inauguration. conservative huckster, rick morris, but all of a sudden he's changes his tune on friday. he wrote about sudden danger signs in the poll for mitt romney. karl rove has raised millions for mitt romney through his american crossroads super pac. he wrote an editorial saying romney will win at least 279 electoral votes and now suddenly he's blaming hurricane sandy for a probable romney loss. >> i think karl rove might have said that because a few days ago he predicted a big romney win
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and my guess is that karl will be why they fell up short. >> all across the airwaves, republicans are running behind are rove's latest talking point. >> the hurricane is what broke romney's momentum. >> you think that as well? >> i don't think there's any question about it. >> brett hume called the latest polling into question. >> i think it's unlikely -- it's hard to imagine as a political journalist that all of these polls are off but the discrepancy is unmistakable and puzzling. >> karl rove was more than happy to be in denial. >> we don't know how close some of these are because, again, rick made an excellent point, the quality of the state level polls are questionable. >> and taking a look inside the minds of the republican spinmeisters. >> the first thing ha happens is, don't believe the public polls are wrong.
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that's the first tin that a campaign is about to lose and the second is, we're going to change the nature of your electorate and the only poll that counts is election day. when you hear those things, you know you're about to lose. >> i'm joined by karen finney. also with us tonight, e.j. dionne, washington post columnist and author of the book "our divided political heart". karen, you first, what do you think? >> of course, remember just before the first debate when you started to hear some of the romney staffers -- romney wasn't doing well and there were these stories of, i haven't really been in the meetings. people trying to distance themselves. that's exactly what rove is trying to do and the thing that's so shameful about it, think about the different that it would have made for governor romney. if he would have came out and
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said this is a time when every american needs to get behind the president, we need to think about the people affected by this storm instead of trying to split hair and figure out a way to get juice out of it while still trying to seem like he was being presidential, i think he would have done a lot better if he would have gotten on board earlier. >> e.j., is there any validity to blaming the hurricane for the election result? how much of an impact will sandy have on this election? >> first of all, president obama should be thankful that karen isn't advising the romney campaign because that was pretty good advice. it's a lot easier to blame a hurricane than to blame your own ideas and a hurricane can cause a lot of damage but a hurricane can't talk back and i think what they are trying to do right now is prepare an alibi so they don't have to acknowledge that their own ideas lost if president obama wins.
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president obama ran on some very clear things. he said he wanted to raise tacks on the wealthy. he said government has a role to play in regulating the market and the public interest in vesting in infratustructure. the republicans don't want to acknowledge that this was a referendum on ideas so they are going to blame the hurricane. >> chris christie addressed all of the complaints that he's been taking from the right wing because he's been working with president obama. here he is. >> this shows you how broken our political system is. because i say something nice about someone who does their job well, somehow -- somehow that takes away my -- that takes away my endorsement of mitt romney? >> it doesn't take away his endorsement but don't you think he kind of went a little overboard?
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it was gushing for days on end and it kind of takes away the narrative from the romney camp that president obama's not doing a good job. >> you know, that's true. although, ed, if you have ever been -- i know both of you have -- if you've been to a place that's been devastated by a storm like that, people are so grateful. it's so emotional that i'm not surprised that the governor was so gushing and frankly the president and his administration did do a good job. but let's be clear. i think there's another point on this that i think we should make. this is not just a cya move. this is also where i come from, we call a punk move because what this is about is beginning to try to delegitimatize a win by president obama on tuesday that, oh, first we heard it was about the polls then it was the bureau of labor statics, they are messing around with the number and then the storm sandy and governor christie being too nice to the president.
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when you are groping in the dark like that for excuses, as e.j. said, it's time to take a look at yourself and saying maybe we're not buying what we are saying. >> e.j., 48 hours leading up to the polls closing, how good has the obama team been? >> so far except for that one debate they ran a good campaign. they took away from mitt romney his sen tal calling card which is my experience at bain capital qualifies me to run the country. i think you're going to see it on attorneyout. one of the problems with the national polls is that they have underestimated what will be the share of the electorate made up of african-americans and latinos and we're going to see that on tuesday. we'll see if i'm right about that. but if so, that's partly because of the determination in those communities and partly because
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they really did have an organization on the ground. >> e.j. dionne, karen finney, thanks for coming on tonight. still ahead, mitt romney makes an interesting strategic decision tonight. we'll talk about the plan for the final day before the election when we come back. you're watching "the ed show." we are coming to you live from democracy plaza. stay with us. donut. chips, chips! [ female announcer ] silence those tempting thoughts with new light & fit greek. its creamy thick texture helps satisfy you. and at 80 calories it's the lightest greek yogurt with fruit. new light & fit greek. be light and fit and satisfied. or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky. or that you had to print from your desk. at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother. easy to use, it's the ultimate combination
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of speed, small size, and low-cost printing. welcome back to "the ed show" live from democracy plaza. we love hearing from our viewers on twitter and on our facebook page. we asked our twitter followers to share their early voting pictures. these two are from mike nanus and willette johnson who braved the long lines in florida. this is desiree who joined her family to cast her vote for the first time ever in texas and
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paul joined in from texas to show us how long the vote being lines are in the tar hill state. thanks for sharing and keep sharing with us. coming up, it's crunch time for the candidates. howard fineman joins me for a look ahead. stay with us. [ male announcer ] free windows 8 training from your son. can you help me with something? nope! good talk. [ male announcer ] or free windows 8 training when you buy a computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade. to prove that febreze car vent clips could eliminate the odor. [ woman ] take a deep breath, tell me what you smell.
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something fresh. a clean house. [ woman ] take your blindfolds off. oh!! hahahaha!!! [ male announcer ] febreze car. eliminates odors, so you can breathe happy.
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and we are back live from democracy plaza in rockefeller center here in new york. and if you're in new york city around the area tomorrow, i'll be broadcasting my radio show live from the msnbc experience here at democracy plaza.
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i'll do the third hour of the show starting at 2:00 p.m. glad to have you come out. come out and say hi and share your thoughts with us about the election. we hope to see you here. and tonight in our survey we asked can voter suppression win the election for mitt romney? 29% of you said yes. 71% of you said no. coming up, what are the candidates doing in the final days of this election? find out what their schedules say about their campaigns when we come back. you're watching "the ed show" live from democracy plaza. [ cheeping ] [ male announcer ] you hear that?
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and in the big finish tonight we're heading into the final push of the 2012 presidential campaign. the candidates are focusing on the states that will decide this election. the president is ending the day in florida. pit bull introduced the president and charlie crist. 25,000 people attended the rally. the president is less than a point behind romney in florida right now. mitt romney campaigned with his wife in cleveland, ohio, today. he's trailing the president. romney also stopped in des moines, iowa, today. he's trailing the president there by at least two points. president made an earlier stop in new hampshire, stoke at rally in concord. the president is leading by two points there but asking voters to help out over the next 48
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hours. >> if you're willing to turn out for me, we'll win new hampshire, we'll win this election. we'll finish what we started. >> oh, it's been a long campaign trail. listen to the voices. let's bring in howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and editorial director of "the huffington post" media group. howard, great to have you with us tonight. there are real different things happening down the stretch here in this campaign. what are they? >> tomorrow there's going to be a battle of the bands literally in columbus, ohio, where the obama campaign and romney campaign are going to run into each other. the president is going to have bruce springs steen with him and romney the marshall tucker band. that shows you how important ohio is. it's the cross roads of america, the cross roads of this campaign. the president tomorrow is also going to be in madison, wisconsin, and going to end the day, basically end his campaign in des moines, iowa, in the state really that launched his presidential career. >> is he in good shape in iowa?
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>> i think the president is in good shape in iowa and it's interesting to note where mitt romney's not going in the last day. because in the last 48 hours you are where you go. mitt romney was in iowa. he's not going back. he's not going back to nevada. he's not going back to iowa. and he's not going to pennsylvania again. which is significant because the obama campaign in the end didn't take the bait on pennsylvania. they are sending bill clinton to pennsylvania, to philadelphia, tomorrow, but they're not sending the president there. >> what hasn't bill clinton done for barack obama? >> well, he was obama's great explainer. he was like the obama whisperer at the democratic convention in charlotte. he's been a campaigner. and he's been a good friend and increasingly somebody that the president relies on. if the president wins re-election, i'm convinced bill clinton's next job will be to help the president sell a budget deal to democrats who may not want to go along. that's almost a tougher job than getting the president re-elected. >> are you worried about the voter suppression that is taking place in ohio?
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it seems to be much more intense in ohio. much more organized, county to county, it looks like they have really done a job. the numbers are down. for instance, in kioga county, they're off 12,000 votes from 2008. >> well, as people know who follow this, cuyahoga county, we're talking about cleveland. democrats need a big turnout in cleveland in order to carry the state. i think, yes, the republicans are focused on the mechanics of this much more than the past. look at ohio. look at florida. those are the two states where you have to look. do they extend voting hours? do they put rules in that at the last minute that really make it difficult? there are going it be lawyers all over the place for both campaigns. every presipgt in florida and ohio in particular. if it's close. if it's down to the wire. expect lawsuits. expect all kinds of stuff happening. it could be a late night on tuesday. >> what is the rather strange strategy of paul ryan speaking today in minnesota? neither one of them have been to minnesota for nine months. >> yeah, well this is the romney campaign looking along the line.
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they couldn't penetrate through the middle, which is ohio, i don't think. i think the president will fight them to a standstill there. they're looking to go around the sides. pennsylvania, minnesota, two states that still belong in the democratic column, i think. >> is president obama good for the down ballot? i mean, the economy, 32 months. private sector job growth. a lot of americans are going to, you know, get the benefits of health care. the country, where we were and where we are now. is he good material for down ballot candidate? >> ed, i think the democrats would like to think so, but i don't think so. i think these two candidates, romney and obama, have been fighting a war of attrition that's about them and about their view of the counted. i think a lot of people are going to split their ballots. i think they're not going to vote straight party. people don't do that anymore. so what that portends to me is your gridlock in washington that whoever is elected president is going to have hard time solving. h